


Down by Rita's

by small_secret



Category: Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: Cannibalism, I Don't Even Know, Kink Meme, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Not Even Headcanon Compliant, Older Characters, Polyfidelity, Prompt Fic, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-29
Updated: 2013-05-29
Packaged: 2017-12-13 07:36:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/821693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/small_secret/pseuds/small_secret
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"There's a shop in the harbor, run by a man who's adopted about a dozen rescue dogs. He fixes boat engines and half his face is covered in scars. There's a European man with white hair who lives with him, above the shop. Then there's the woman, Her hair is brilliantly red, like fire. Nobody in the harbor really knows what to make of them." <a href="http://hannibalkink.dreamwidth.org/1847.html?thread=2110775#cmt2110775">Prompt</a> Fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Down by Rita's

**Author's Note:**

> Minor Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal book series spoilers, but full disclosure of the spoilers are only at the end notes. Story isn't really apart of my headcanon but just absurd fluff and gratuitous usage of babies and cannibalism. (Not together, of course.) Takes place about 15 years after the TV series.

The habor found off the coast isn't much to write home about. It's surviving because of old businesses and inhabited mostly by old people.

 

So not much happens here.

 

The latest thing that happens in the harbor a new boat mechanic arriving into town some months after the old one passed away. He purchases one of those old warehouses that had been abandoned since the mid 1990s. Not a big factory but all too large for just a shop though the entire building is converted.

 

The renovation was kept watch under the harbor's local old boat men, Jerry and Dale. Jerry had served in the navy for most his life and Dale had gone tuna fishing for most of his. Age was probably the only thing the two had in common and the need to know what happened in the harbor. They had a perfect view on keeping an eye on the place at Rita's diner. It's called _Lady Mara's_ , but everyone simply calls it Rita's after the owner and manager. Rita is on the old side, but she's too stubborn to sit down and largely tolerates Jerry and Dale.

 

Though it's renovated, the mechanic's shop itself isn't very pretty, and the new owner wasn't much better on one side of the face. The other side was fine enough for a man in his late 40s (if not 50 exactly). He once stopped by for a cup of coffee and it soon became a few times. Dale saw the man had fine dog hairs all over his crumpled shirt and was delighted when the man dropped some accidental Cajun, Dale being from New Orleans himself.

 

The man called himself 'Bill'.

 

Jerry thought the bastard was posing and the shop would close in a month, even as household furniture was moved into the back of it. Had to eat his crow when various dogs began to appear around the shop over the next two months.

 

All of them collared, of course. So Jerry had to admit Bill wasn't half bad.

 

* * *

 

 

Jerry and Dale didn't care so much for the European. They weren't even certain of the guy's age save for 50-something. Early? Mid? Jerry was sure it was late 50s because the bastard's hair was white and all the fine lines around his eyes, though his skin still remarkably firm. Rita disagreed said the man was too built to be pushing his 60s.

 

Both men snort. Rita has a _crush_.

 

They're terribly silent when the European man with silver and ash hair drops by for coffee with Bill. He's largely formal and stoic in comparison to Bill whose face is animated, even with the scars. The accent is thick as motor oil to their ears compared to Bill's and the European is impossibly elegant. He stands out like a drop of blood on a white sheet.

 

Jerry and Dale keep their mouths shut and Rita does the talking. Mostly because he's a friend of Bill's... a very good friend of Bill's.

 

"They're quite the odd pair," Rita notes as she serves the old sailors coffee when Bill and his friend leave. 

 

"I think they're homosexual." Dale notes, "They're _always_ together."

 

Jerry pointedly doesn't say anything and just sips his coffee.

 

About a week after that exchange, there is proof from Joe. He's one of those old guys who still don't realize it and has too much money to spend. Bit of an uppity ass that's tolerated because of too much money.

 

He candidly notes to Jerry and Dale that when he went to pick up his cubby motorboat, he caught Bill and the European giving each other a goodbye kiss. Apparently the European had a job in town, doing what, Joe's not sure.

 

"But gossip is gossip, right?" He says.

 

" _Bullshit_ ," Jack snorts, "That's ain't gossip, that's _not respecting privacy_. If that fella wants to get his waist coats covered with Billy's motor oil, then that's his business. What I wanna know is if Bill's work is any good. Betty's not been working right for _years_."

 

Rita simply sighs out of sheer embarrassment.

 

They don't notice the bells ringing as the European leaves the diner.

 

* * *

 

 

They later discover that the European is an artist. Knuckles splashed with earth tones that scritch scratch up his forearms that are veiny but surprisingly youthful. Jerrry swears that the man has a death glare. Dale just simply reads the paper.

 

Bill's dogs love the European but they don’t seem to trust too many other people besides Bill.

 

And apparently the European likes Rita's coffee.

 

(She has _no idea_ what a _compliment_ that is.)

 

There are moments of intimacy caught between the European and Bill now that Jerry and Dale are aware of it. They walk close together, the European's hands gently brushing back curls and picking at lint. Intense and quiet gazes. But both men are very aware they're in a sleepy little town and while the current view on homosexuality is brighter than it was, it's not bright enough for them to kiss in public.

 

But Jerry and Dale figure isn't not their damned bussiness.

 

* * *

 

 

Though they spend most of their time together, Dale and Jerry are largely heterosexual. After all, they're not dead yet. They figure they've got another five to ten years left to be proven otherwise but so far there've been no takers.

 

They're _very_ heterosexual when a leggy redhead comes to call on Rita's. She introduces herself as Hannah and she has an accent sweet as honey, hair vibrant as flame, and she's wondrously young in her mid 30s. A beautiful little girl is attached to her hip with ash-gold hair and eyes that clearly come from her momma and a shy-sweet face. Hannah calls her 'Meesh' and both ladies are rather chatty (or in Meesh's case, as chatty as a two year old can be).

 

Jerry, who knows these sorts of things, says it's probably a nickname for Michelle or Mischa. Something Russian. Either way, they're charmed by mother and daughter even if Hannahs seems out of place.  But she's often seen driving in a refurbished late 90s Mustang and doesn't seem to readily live in the Harbor, rather somewhere in town.

 

So no one bothers to connect dots.

 

Dale and Jerry can't help but be a little worried when she leaves one afternoon and Joe meets her on the way to her car. They see her face fluster but she continues on, mindful of her daughter in her arms.

 

Joe, _charming_ as always.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Everything that Dale and Jerry have pieced out about Bill and the European becomes nearly like one of Rita's damned soap operas when they spot Hannah walking towards the shop. The little girl all but hops behind her mother, petting each one of Bill's dogs as their tails wag at her.

 

The door shop opens and the European steps out.

 

Meesh stops and goes tearing to the man who smiles (they never recall him smiling and it's a _frightening_ sight - the man's teeth are _sharp_ ) and sweeps the little girl into his arms and pants a kiss on her forehead.

 

There's an unspoken assumption he's a _grandfather_ until Hannah comes to join him and the little girl. The kiss that Hannah and the European exchange is **not** fatherly _at all_. And then the European looks at in the direction of the diner, gaze dead and frightening.

 

Then he escorts the mother and little girl inside the shop.

 

Dale and Jerry just order more coffee and stare everywhere but out the window for the next few weeks.

 

* * *

 

 

"Well, that's ... different." Jerry says and Dale looks up from his lunch.

 

Hannah and Bill are out there on the shop's little porch. Bill has Meesh curled in his one arm who quietly sucks on her thumb, cozy and comfortable and perfectly like she belongs there. Hannah leans against Bill's other arm while her fingers gently trace his scars, chatting all the while as a lop sided smile tugs on the mechanic’s face; the intimacy mellow and charming.

 

Which is all in good but really, really _odd_.

 

Then Joe wanders up. Words are exchanged and Hannah's face is red as her hair from anger as Joe walks away. Bill's face is oddly stony and eyes are glassy dark though his hand remains strong and steady around Hannah's wrist. Hannah looks like she wants to tear Joe up.

 

"Son of a bitch is just asking for it," Dale mutters and chews on a fry.

 

"Don't we all know it," Jerry agrees.

 

They don't notice the doorbell ringing again as the European steps outside to join his family.

 

* * *

 

 

A few weeks later, Joe goes missing.

 

Two weeks after that, Bill has a BBQ and Rita drags Dale and Jerry over to the party. They find the European's name is Tomas. He sure as hell doesn't sound Italian but his pork ribs are fantastic.

 

And they remain polite enough not to ask what goes on between Bill, Tomas, and Hannah. Mostly because they never seen a happier girl than Mischa Fell.

**Author's Note:**

> So, basically just some details about the fic. Because I want to babble. Beware of minor spoilers from the book.
> 
> -The ages of the characters are Will at 49, Hannibal at 60, and Clarice at 35.  
> -Hannibal's alias of Tomas Fell is largely based on his alias in Hannibal the novel where he's just known as Dr. Fell. Tomas is a reference to Thomas Harris _and_ Thomas Brown, the man who wrote the nursery rhyme that the alias comes from, and is the Lithuanian name for 'Thomas'. When this story was written on the kinkmeme, the name was Dante because Hannibal is a huge Dante Alighieri fanboy and I wrote this Too Early A.M.  
>  -Hannah is based on the horse Clarice saved in Silence of the Lambs in the novel. However I have the Silence of the Lamb movie canon in mind in regards to rescuing farm animals, thus this Clarice attempted and failed in saving lambs.  
> -Will decided for simplicity and went with 'Bill'. Not because he isn't imaginative but rather one's name shouldn't draw too much attention.


End file.
